A lonesome baroque archway stands upright in an empty sea. A ship of the line sails towards it, flying a Union Jack. A cowboy rides a defiant bull, raising a fist above his head in triumph. A tulip blooms out of plastic. Weaving threads between these individual motifs, Gordon Cheung narrates a history that is hidden in the details. Like an archaeologist, he traces centuries of colonial cartographies and diasporic movement, bearing witness to civilizations obscured by the sands of time. Cheung seeks to understand what it means to be human, in civilizations with histories written by the victors.
gdm Hong Kong is pleased to present “Gordon Cheung: New Territories”, the artist’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery, featuring a retrospective of Gordon Cheung’s work, spanning across painting and sculpture. New Territories circumnavigates the historical and geographical passage of global capitalism from the Dutch Golden Age to the rise of China as a 21st Century superpower, questioning its lasting impact on our perceptions of identity, territory, and sense of belonging. Painting an intimate picture of both his ancestral lineage as well as the history of Hong Kong at large, Cheung’s practice sits against the backdrop of this city emerging from its colonial past, charting new possibilities into an uncertain future.
